Once I saw it on TV, I knew I wanted it n my collection. Chico & Rita Such a lovely movie. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Use the HTML below. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? An evocative animated love story set in the jazz nightclubs of Havana and New York. A precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution. Directed by Fernando Trueba and designed by Javier Mariscal with music by Bebo Valds, Chico & Rita is a tender and beautiful filmic masterpiece. An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict. Set in Algeria in the 1920s, a rabbi's cat who learns how to speak after swallowing the family parrot expresses his desire to convert to Judaism. It really, really works in ways you wouldn't have imagined that it would. and not enough attention has been paid to the two foreign films that DID earn a nod - "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico & Rita." To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we dont use a simple average. Labelled as an epic animated love story between Chico and Rita, in reality this story is all about Cuba and the perennial charm of the music coming from the country. But shifting the medium to animation makes the tale seem more believable and adds an entertaining, interesting, albeit ultimately not completely satisfying, twist. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero brings heartache and torment. They both are chasing dreams - artistic and human. Everything from the plot to the soundtrack to the alien language of Chico and Rita made this film a great all round watch that left me fulfilled as the credits rolled. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 December 2014. Select the department you want to search in. As a fan of some animation, I had postponed looking at this effort. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. The film begins in Havana in 1948 with Chico beginning to make his name as a piano As a love story, the film shares some elements of the oft derided Latino telenovelas (soaps) in its sometimes predictable plot twists and underlying romance. Cuba, 1948. -- Zanimum 14:35, 16 February 2012 (UTC) External links modified. Director: Fernando Trueba. Approved third parties also use these tools in connection with our display of ads. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. It is truly an animated film for the adult mind.What a nice surprise (and a well deserved one,) if either of the two foreign film entrants in this category were to hear their names called from an Oscar envelope. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Cuban piano player Chico (Eman Xor Ona) meets an astounding singer in Rita (Limara Meneses) and the film focuses on the romance that develops between the two. Music and romantic desire unites Chico, a young piano player with big dreams and Rita, singer with an extraordinary beauty and voice, but their journey - in the tradition of the Cuban bolero - brings heartache and torment. A unique and truly moving adult cartoon. The story follows the 60-year romance of Chico, a young piano player, and Rita, a gorgeous singer with talent to match her looks.